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Glowing kittens, transgenics and FIV: A step towards combating HIV

What do humans and cats have in common? Apart from a liking for tuna and a tendency to get sleepy on a Sunday afternoon, both are AIDS-susceptible species, and researchers in the USA and Japan are looking at feline genome manipulation as a route to create better models for HIV and other infectious and non-infectious diseases.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic used gamete-targeted lentiviral transgenesis to transfect the feline egg cells with a gene for the restriction factor, TRIMCyp, along with a jellyfish gene as a fluorescent reporter gene to track the efficacy of transfection, before fertilisation in vitro. This was the first success of this technique in a carnivore.

The glowing kittens are undeniably cute, and while the research is focused on creating better models for HIV, the outcome could have an upside for the cats too, by leading to ways to prevent and treat FIV, which affects 2.5-4.4% of cats worldwide.